Ancestral

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The star dissolved in evening—the one star 
The silently
  and night O soon now, soon 
And still the light now
 and still now the large 
Relinquishing
 and through the pools of blue 
Still, still the swallows
 and a wind now
 and the tree 
Gathering darkness:
 I was small. I lay 
Beside my mother on the grass, and sleep 
Came—

  slow hooves and dripping with the dark 
The velvet muzzles, the white feet that move 
In a dream water
 and O soon now soon
Sleep and the night.

 And I was not afraid. 
Her hand lay over mine. Her fingers knew 
Darkness,—and sleep—the silent lands, the far 
Far off of morning where I should awake.

© Archibald MacLeish